In honor of Veterans Day, we’re featuring work by two SVA students and former U.S. Marines. Left: A poem by Jane Luca, MFA Products of Design student and Vice President of SVA Veteran’s Coalition of Arts; Right: by Alex Angel (BFA 2020 Design), MFA Fine Arts student.

SVA’s relationship and commitment to its student veterans go back more than 70 years, when a majority of the inaugural class of 35 students of the Cartoonists and Illustrators School—as SVA was originally known—were recently returned service members. Co-founder Silas Rhodes, who served in the U.S. Army during World War II, worked for the Veterans Administration and conceived of the art school to help veterans—newly encouraged to pursue higher education and vocational training through the tuition-paying G.I. Bill—compete for better jobs in the advertising and publishing worlds.